How Does the Environment Impact on the Events Industry?
Over the last few decades, our environmental awareness has grown massively, evolving from a small movement to a global initiative that affects every aspect of day to day life. With this change, there has been an increase in the public consciousness of how we are collectively affecting the environment. Additionally, industries across the world have had to adapt to ensure they meet environmental standards and to stay relevant in an increasingly environmentally demanding marketplace. In this article, we look at some of the impacts that the environment has made upon the events industry and possible solutions, event organisers can anticipate reducing industry impact on the environment.
Plastics
Cheap to make, hugely versatile and easy to transport, plastics have been at the core of our world for decades, ever since their popularity rose during the 1960s. Plastics are a hugely divisive topic and are never far from the headlines, whether this is microplastics, single-use plastics or new plastic-free initiatives. No matter your stance on the subject, it’s clear to see that they have a lot to answer for when it comes to environmental impact and the desire to reduce plastic use has had a significant effect on the events industry.
Because of the cheap and versatile nature of plastics, they have been the go-to for many elements of events, whether this is plastic cups or bottles, wristbands, and other event items. The change of mindset has prompted a review by event organisers to bring in alternative solutions and reduce their impact on the environment. However, this change also affects the cost of running an event as many environmentally friendly solutions come at an extra cost. This added cost has had a knock on effect for the end price of the event to the user, leading to a careful balancing act of keeping costs and environmental impact equally low.
Some of our clients have taken the next steps to combat this and no longer supply bottled water due of the array of bottles strewn across site after the load in, install and then derig. The clean up and recycling required afterwards has prompted change whereby they now provide water stations to overcome that hurdle and encourage crew to bring their own reusable bottles.
Transport
Events such as festivals, sports events and seminars require a logistical masterclass to ensure that everyone is where they need to be at a given time. For the most part, getting to the venue itself can be the most time consuming and intensive part of the experience, causing logistical issues for both organisers and customers. To counter this, many organisers and hosts now offer bus transport pick ups and drop offs for attendees, either from an offsite carpark or from their home town or city. This is a win-win for many as it reduces the number of cars being parked/driven to the venue and reduces the environmental impact of the event as a whole. This also benefits customers as they are not waiting in traffic with all of the other attendees, nor are they paying for petrol etc. This kind of impact has positively changed the event industry and now better serves the attendees as well.
Carefully Choosing Suppliers
Event organisers, now more than ever, are conscious of where they are sourcing various products and services for their event. Whether this is catering, consumables or event crewing, suppliers are vital for the success of the event. Our diverse network of crewmen allows us to cover the whole of the UK with ease, along with providing crewing support for countries within Europe. We combine global and local crewing to both minimise environmental impact where possible yet still provide a high-quality service for our clients.
Education
With the increased public consciousness of our impact on the environment, there has been a growth in people seeking educate on the topic. With events such as music festivals, the impact on the environment is plain to see, as people leave the site after depositing tons of waste. Festivals are part of our culture, they bring people together to share in a common interest, however, this level of waste is not sustainable. Festivals such as Glastonbury have launched campaigns recently in the hope of highlighting the effect of their waste and the time, money and manpower required to remove it from the site.
It’s clear to see that the environment has a large impact on the events industry, prompting a change of mindset and requiring organisers to think long term to protect the sustainability of their event. However, this also means that there is significant potential to reduce the industry footprint. Like the environmental initiative as a whole, if small changes take place and new initiatives begin to thrive, the industry can support the environment and have a positive impact, leading to a sustainable future for all our favourite events.
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